Apple · Pentagon · Tom's Hardware
Apple made marketing gold from the export ban on Power Mac G4 'supercomputer' in 1999, 'for the first time in history a
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In a turbulent conflict-shaken world rife with geopolitical rivalry, tech export bans seem increasingly prevalent.
Key facts
- Here they look back at the Apple Power Macintosh G4 export ban from 1999, and Steve Jobs making marketing gold from the situation
- In the summer of 1999, the U.S. government put export restrictions on Apple’s newly launched Power Mac G4 desktop tower systems
- Bill Clinton’s administration raised the gigaflop threshold for U.S. export controls in January 2000
- The latest tech export controversy headlines revolve around the recently launched version of the Anthropic Claude AI model, dubbed Fable
Summary
In the summer of 1999, the U.S. government put export restrictions on Apple’s newly launched Power Mac G4 desktop tower systems. Though Apple naturally sought to get the restrictions lifted, according to contemporary reports, its new interim chief executive officer, Steve Jobs, didn’t miss a great marketing trick. “For the first time in history a personal computer has been classified as a weapon by the US government,” narrates the voice over, backed by the theme tune from the classic war movie The Great Escape. As a reminder, the first Power Mac G4 machines, codenamed Yikes!, did indeed wield envious compute power at the time.